208 ANATID^E. 



years old, had brought up many broods, and was highly 

 valued by the neighbours. She exhibited, some eight or 

 nine years past, one of the most remarkable instances of 

 the powers of instinct that was ever recorded. She was 

 sitting on four or five eggs, and was observed to be very 

 busy in collecting weeds, grasses, &c. to raise her nest ; a 

 farming man was ordered to take down half a load of 

 haulm, with which she most industriously raised her nest 

 and the eggs two feet and a half; that very night there 

 came down a tremendous fall of rain, which flooded all the 

 malt shops and did great damage. Man made no pre- 

 paration, the Bird* did. Instinct prevailed over reason ; 

 her eggs were above, and only just above the water. 



The young, when hatched, which is generally about the 

 end of May, are conducted to the water by the parent 

 birds, and are even said to be carried there : it is certain 

 that the cygnets are frequently carried on the back of the 

 female when she is sailing about in the water. This I 

 have witnessed on the Thames, and have seen the female, 

 by raising her leg, assist the cygnets in getting upon her 

 back. I thought it probable that carrying the young 

 might only be resorted to when the brood inhabited a 

 river, to save the young the labour of following the parent 

 against the stream ; but during the present summer, 1841, 

 a female Swan was frequently seen carrying her young on 

 the canal in St. Jameses Park, where there is no current 

 to impede their course. A short quotation from the first 

 volume of " Gleanings in Natural History," by Mr. Jesse, 

 corroborates several points in the habits of this bird. 

 " Living on the banks of the Thames, I have often been 



* In the account of the Green Woodpecker, I have referred at vol. ii. page 

 142, to the probable means by which birds and some other animals become cogni- 

 zant of approaching changes in the weather. 



